King of Hearts
by LanieSullivan
Summary: A follow-up to "King's Ransom" and "Fit For a King," to deal with the aftermath of the New Year's Eve party referenced in OTL. Note: I made some slight changes to the last chapter of "Fit For a King," to up the tension in this one so it might be a good idea to re-read that one and for those who haven't read the prior two stories in this series, it's a good idea to read them first.
1. Ante Up

Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

 **AN:** This is a continuation of the "King" stories I began last Christmas and directly follows "Fit For a King," so if you haven't read it or the prior story, "King's Ransom," I'd recommend them first or this story will make little sense to you.

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 **January 1, 1985. 12:00PM**

"Joe, come on," Amanda called toward the living room in a pleading tone. "Aren't you packed yet? We need to go soon!"

"My plane doesn't leave until 3. Are you in that big a hurry to get rid of me?" her ex-husband's tone was half-teasing, half-serious. After their conversation of the previous night and her almost confessing that she had feelings for her co-worker, he wondered if she really _was_ eager to get him out of the house.

Amanda sighed at feeling once again that he just wasn't listening to her just like when they'd been married. "No, Joe, but I told you this morning I have things I need to do today before I drop you off at the airport."

"Amanda, it's a holiday. Can't you just for once relax and take it easy for a minute?"

"No, Joe, I can't. I told you what happened last night with Lee having had a few too many, so I need to go by his place to pick him up so he can get his car from the Soviet Embassy since he was in no condition to drive it home last night."

"Lee again," he grumbled.

"No, not again," she corrected. " _Still_. I told you last night that I drove him home. Now, because we met there and I'm the one who took him home, we were forced to leave his car there and I would hate for them to have it towed for being there too long and then having to deal with getting it out of an impound lot somewhere, which because it IS a holiday is going to be impossible to do. Weren't you listening to anything I said at all?" Before he could speak, she continued by answering her own question, "No, of course you weren't listening. You never did listen to anything I had to say unless it was important to you, but let me tell you something this is important to me because _he_ is important to me."

"I'm getting that," he replied sarcastically, irritated that she wasn't willing to admit that she had deeper feelings for this other man than she let on. "But doesn't he have any friends who could give him a ride?"

" _I'm_ his friend and as his friend, I made a promise to him and I'm not going to let you stop me from keeping that promise, so unless you get the lead out and get packed, you're going to have to take a cab to the airport."

"But you'd promise you'd drive me," he protested.

"Yes, but _you_ promised you'd be ready to go when I was," she countered.

"Oh, I see how it is," he sniped. "You're more worried about keeping your promise to him than you are the one you made to the father of your children."

Amanda rolled her eyes at his last comment. Every time they had a fight, even after their divorce that was his fallback tactic, reminding her that she was the mother of his children, just as he'd done last night when she got home so late. "Joe, stop it. Stop acting like you have any right to be jealous. You know very well that you don't. The fact that I'm the mother of your children has no bearing on that. We're not a couple anymore and my life is my own and part of that life is taking care of the people I care about. One of those people I care about is Lee, so I'm _going_ to take care of this situation, especially since I'm part of the reason he couldn't drive himself last night since he thought he was defending my honor. When was the last time _you_ did something like that for me?"

"Amanda, I-"

She held up a finger to shut him up and stated adamantly, "Just be ready to go in half an hour or take a cab. Your choice."

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"I thought you said you were just going to make sure you helped him retrieve his car," Joe complained as they stood outside Lee's apartment with a nod to the takeout bag she'd insisted on picking up on their way across town. While he was grateful to Lee for getting him out of hot water in Malta, he felt Amanda was going a bit above and beyond for a guy she insisted wasn't her boyfriend. "And why did I have to come up here with you?"

"Maybe so you could hold this stuff for me, while I knock," she suggested with an evasive smile. She wasn't about to tell her ex-husband that she wasn't quite sure how comfortable she felt being alone with Lee in his apartment after their encounter last night when he'd asked her to stay with him and his actions had made it all too clear that he didn't mean just to keep him company. While she'd left him with hints that she might be interested under different circumstances, she now wondered if she'd made a mistake in doing so. What would Lee think of her now? Would he want to take her up on that now that he was sober or would it just cause him to backpedal again? _Or was he too drunk to even remember it at all?_ a worried voice in her head sounded.

Amanda frowned when there was no answer after her first knock. Surely he had to be up by now since it was early afternoon. Undeterred, she tried again, knocking more firmly the second time.

"Maybe he found another 'friend' to help him get his car and he's just not home," Joe suggested hopefully. After he'd let slip to Amanda the prior evening about Lee bailing him out when his last job had gotten too hot to handle, he wasn't exactly anxious to see the man again, especially when he suspected the mother of his children had deeper feelings for the guy than she was willing to admit. _It's none of your business,_ he tried to remind himself.

"No, I'm sure that's not true," Amanda argued. "I told him very specifically to call me so we could go get his car."

"Funny, I don't remember the phone ringing at the house at all this morning," Joe commented dryly.

"Okay, so maybe he didn't call," she scoffed, ignoring Joe's sarcastic tone as she began to root through her purse. "But it doesn't change the fact that he would be expecting me to do help him out."

"What are you looking for?" he asked curiously, wondering what she was up to now.

"Well, it's obvious he just isn't up yet. After all, we did have a late night last night," she reasoned.

"So, I noticed," he grumbled irritably, "But that still doesn't tell me-"

His words were cut off as she finally found what she was looking for and crowed triumphantly, "AHA!" as she produced a key ring and reached to unlock Lee's front door.

"Do I even want to know why you have a key to his place?" he questioned, but then off her annoyed look, quickly added, "Not that it's really any of my business."

Amanda opened the door, dropped the key back into her purse and reached for the takeout bag Joe still held. "Come on," she urged.

"Uh…maybe I should just stay out here…or better yet, go back to the car and wait. I mean, he's your friend, not mine."

"Don't be silly. You can be friendly enough just to say hello, can't you? I mean, you have already met him, right? Besides, I'm just dying to know what really happened in Malta." She shot him a pointed look.

"I should never have said anything," he sighed, kicking himself once again for letting jealousy allow him to put his foot in his mouth.

"Well, it's a little too late for that now, isn't it? Now, come on."

"Great," Joe muttered under his breath, thinking he might have been better off just taking a cab after all.

"Hello-oo! Lee, are you up?"

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"UGH!" Lee groaned when he awoke with a splitting headache. "God, how much did I drink last night?" He closed his eyes against the pain in an attempt to will it to go away. As he lay there, an unbidden image of Amanda in her party dress appeared in the front of his mind; or more accurately, partially out of her party dress. He blinked as if trying to blink it away, but every time he closed his eyes, like a slow, pulsing strobe light, it was there again flashing slowly in and out in perfect rhythm with the pounding in his head; the recurring image of him pushing aside the lapels of her coat and reaching for the straps of her dress as if to undress her.

Again, he tried to blink away that memory and he was successful the second time, only to have it be replaced by an even more disturbing image of _her_ undressing him. It was so vivid, he could almost still feel her nimble fingers lightly grazing the skin under his shirt as she did so sending a slight shudder of anticipation through his body.

He opened his eyes and sat up as he recalled the words they'd spoken to each other. _"Stay." "I want to..."_ And that was after the heated kisses they'd shared. "God, did I really ask her to stay?" he mused aloud. _And did she really say she wanted to,_ a hopeful voice in his head sounded.

He shook his head in an attempt to shake off those memories, but that had been the wrong thing to do as it only made his head hurt more. He let out a sigh, muttered, "Aspirin," crawled out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom, the pounding in his head getting worse once he was on his feet.

He fumbled through the medicine cabinet for the bottle of aspirin he knew he kept there and fiddled with the cap, swearing when he was unable to open it, "Damn childproof cap!" He gripped the edge of the sink with one hand to stabilize himself and rapped the bottle against the counter with the other. As he did so, he heard another rapping sound and that was when he realized the pounding wasn't only in his head. Someone was knocking on his door.

"Great," he sighed. He debated on answering it, but then decided it was better to just let them knock until they gave up and went away. He was in no mood for company in his present condition. He meandered back to his bedroom with the bottle and sat down, hoping to clear his spinning head enough to get the stupid bottle open. He let out a sigh of relief when it the knocking stopped and it was blissfully silent. "Good. They're gone."

His relief only lasted a moment though when he heard a way-too-chipper voice calling, "Hello-oo! Lee, are you up?"

Resigned to his fate, he rose from the bed and went to greet his annoyingly cheery morning-person partner. "Amanda, what the hell are you doing in here?"

She gulped as she saw he was pretty much in the same state she'd left him in, shirtless, barefoot, but still wearing his tuxedo pants from the party. Her mind couldn't help drifting back to the way he'd touched her in his inebriated state. _This is going to be more difficult than I thought,_ she worriedly concluded in her mind.


	2. Raise the Stakes

Amanda quickly tamped down that thought, supremely glad that she'd insisted on bringing Joe along to prevent her from either embarrassing herself with Lee or taking things further than she should.

Pasting on a smile, she explained, "Well, I knocked, but you didn't answer, so I figured you were still sleeping it off and that I'd better check on you. You gave me a key awhile back so I could feed your fish, remember?" Though, she wondered why he hadn't asked her to look after his fish while he'd been in Malta. Though, he hadn't even bothered to tell her he was going in the first place. She was guessing it was because he'd been specifically going after Joe and for whatever reason, didn't want her to know about it since he'd told Joe not to tell her that it had happened. What she couldn't understand was why? Why didn't he want her to know about his heroism? That should be a good thing, shouldn't it?

Lee ran a hand through his hair, nodded to the takeout bag in her other hand. "My fish, not me," he groused.

"Oh, come on. Don't be your usual grumpy self. I mean, I know you're not a morning person, but first, it's afternoon now and second, you need to get something in your stomach after all that vodka last night. Now, I brought you some bagels from that place you like around the corner from the office and a big cup of coffee with cream and no sugar just the way you like it."

He shook his head and couldn't help smiling at her thoughtfulness as he took the bag from her in his free hand. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, but it looks like you could use more coffee than just the one cup that I brought, so I'll just go make you a fresh pot."

"Amanda, that's not-" Lee sighed because before he couldn't even tell her it wasn't necessary, she'd already made a beeline for his kitchen, leaving the two men standing awkwardly staring at one another.

After a full minute of uncomfortable silence, Joe remembered what Amanda had said to him about being friendly and spoke first, "Uh…hi….Lee."

"Joe…" Lee nodded curtly as he sat down on the sofa, set the aspirin bottle down on the table, turned his attention to the bag and gingerly lifted out the coffee cup. He took a sip from it wishing to God he had something stronger in his hand, not that he needed it with the way his head still ached. "Huh, she does know how I like my coffee," he grinned at the other man.

Joe frowned. "Sooo…a mutual acquaintance, huh?" He reminded Lee of what he'd said to him in Malta as he sat across from him and stared sternly at him. "You could've just told me you were talking about the mother of my children."

Lee took note of how he'd referred to Amanda specifically as the mother of his children, not simply his ex-wife. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was getting at. The gauntlet had been thrown. "I supposed I could have, but as I told you then, I have to operate in secret. Learning and keeping secrets is part of the job." He paused for a beat, smirked at Joe and then added, "And you wouldn't believe the secrets I've learned about your _**ex**_ -wife."

Amanda rolled her eyes as she re-entered the room. Due to the small size of Lee's place and the close proximity of the kitchen to the living room, she'd heard every word and had become increasingly annoyed with both of them. "Okay, _Boys_ , zip up and let's end this measuring contest right now. I swear the two of you are worse than Phillip and Jamie with they get into a battle of wills, but let me make one thing perfectly clear here. I'm not a contest to be won!" She glanced from one to the other, "By either of you!"

The two men continued to glower at one another, Joe being the first to speak, giving up any pretense of having kept their adventure in Malta to himself. "Look, I was just telling your _acquaintance_ here that he could've been upfront about why he was there in Malta and how he just happened to show up at just the right time to save my ass."

"Well, it's a damn good thing I did or you wouldn't be sitting here right now to have this argument in the first place!" Lee fired back.

"I know that and I'm grateful, believe me," he replied sincerely, but then couldn't resist adding another little dig at Lee, "I mean, after all, I got to spend the whole last week with Amanda and the kids because of it."

 _Ouch,_ Lee thought, but still countered with, "That may be, but I'm the one she was with last night, wasn't I? And where were you?" He snapped his fingers as if realization had just dawned, "Oh, that's right. You were the one at home with the kids for a change while Amanda and I had a hell of a night on the town that ended right there in my bedroom when I asked her to stay and she said she wanted to."

"Okay, stop," Amanda insisted. "You're both right and you're both wrong." She wagged a finger at both of them in turn, first at Joe. "You…yes you've been staying at the house for the past week, but you can just stop with trying to make it sound like it was anything more than it was when you've been sleeping on the pullout in the living room the whole time."

"I-" Joe shut up immediately when she shot him a "Don't you dare" look.

"And you," Amanda turned her icy glare to Lee. "Yes, we ended up in your bedroom last night, but you and I both know why…because you were too damn drunk to stand up under your own power. And yes, you asked me to stay, but do you know what would've happened if I had? Absolutely nothing! If you were too drunk to walk by yourself, I can pretty much guarantee you wouldn't have been able to manage anything else."

Joe shot a gloating grin Lee's way to which Lee replied, "Don't look so smug. She may be right on that part, but who was she kissing at midnight? It sure as hell wasn't you."

"Okay, you know what? I've had it!" She pointed to the entry table. "Your car keys are on the table in the hall and as far as I'm concerned, you can take a cab back to the embassy to get your precious car. And while you're at it, call one for Joe too to take him to the airport. The way you two are acting, I don't want to drive either of you anywhere!"

"But my luggage is in your car," Joe protested at the same time, Lee complained, "But you promised."

"Then both of you need to stop acting like two little kids fighting over a toy and I mean it! You!" She gestured wildly to her ex. "You still treat me just like you did when we were married; as if my thoughts, feelings and opinions don't matter, just what _you_ want! After getting divorced over it, you would think you'd have learned your lesson by now, but noooo….you're still just as damn stubborn as you always were!"

Lee burst out laughing at her rant toward Joe, but his mirth soon faded when she turned on him and let him have it too. "And you! You couldn't care less what's going on in my life if it doesn't directly concern you! You spend half your time acting like you don't want me around until you need me or until God forbid, another man pays me the slightest bit of attention. Oh, boy, then you act like you care! You act like a crazy, possessive lover as if you had the perfect right to do so when you yourself have never expressed any real interest until last night with you were too loaded to think straight!"

"Hey! You wanna' talk about being stubborn. Maybe you should look in the mirror," Joe argued as Lee also yelled back, "Hey! I was just trying to look out for you last night when Borchov was making an ass of himself and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer! Would you have preferred to have him pawing you half the night?"

"Okay, no, I wasn't interested in Borchov, only my date and I think I made that perfectly clear to both of you. And just in case you were so drunk you've forgotten that date was _you_." She again turned back to Joe and told him pointedly, "As for you, I already told you last night, I do not want to rehash what went wrong in our marriage because it won't do either of us any good." She took a deep breath. "Now, if you'll excuse me, that coffee should be done by now. Just remember, I can hear you from in there." She turned on her heel and marched back to the kitchen.

Lee couldn't help laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, but all the yelling hadn't helped his headache in the slightest and he again reached for the aspirin bottle, hoping that he'd be able to stop fighting it now that he was more awake.

When he saw him struggling with it, Joe chimed in, "Here, let me. Since, as you mentioned, I was at home with the kids last night, I _wasn't_ drinking."

Lee shook his head and let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, thanks." He had to admit, Joe was right.

"It's the least I can do since you pretty much saved my life in Malta," Joe replied in a much calmer tone. He opened the bottle, pulled the cotton from it and handed it back to him.

"Well, you're the lifesaver now," Lee commented as he finally downed a couple of the coveted pills hoping they would ease the pain in his throbbing head.

"So, are we all ready to act like adults now?" Amanda asked coolly as she returned with the coffee service from Lee's kitchen.

"Yeah," Lee nodded while Joe said, "Sure."

"Can I just ask one question?" Joe added. "You can feel free to tell me it's none of my damn business since it really isn't, but-"

"I'm listening," Amanda answered, but with an apprehensive look toward her ex-husband as she sat beside Lee on the couch and began pouring coffee.

"Okay, well, you said last night that… _he_ …" He nodded to Lee. "Um…you said that he's not your boyfriend, so how is it that you know so much about him, how he takes his coffee and for that matter, how it is you seem to know your way around his apartment so well?" He also couldn't help noticing just how comfortable she looked sitting beside Lee despite the fact that he was still half-dressed. He wondered just how truthful she'd been last night about her relationship with the other man. After all, through the whole argument, one thing she hadn't countered was when Lee had said she'd been kissing him at midnight. _She also didn't deny that she wanted to spend the night with him,_ a taunting inner voice added.

Amanda sighed. "The coffee thing I learned early on at the office when we first started working together. As for the apartment, I already told you, when he goes on long trips for the job, I feed his fish."

"While we're on that subject," Lee interjected. "I'll take that key back. If I'd known you were going to abuse it, I'd never have given it to you."

"I don't see how I was abusing it when I just came to keep my promise to you to go get your car and if you'd have answered your door, I would never have used it in the first place."

"Okay, fair point, BUT there was a reason I didn't answer." He indicated his state of undress. "On that note…" he drained the rest of the to-go cup and rose from his seat. "I should get cleaned up if we're going to go pick up my car."

"Yeah, good idea," Amanda replied as she breathed a sigh of relief.

Joe noticed the visible relief on Amanda's face when Lee had left the room and let out a soft chuckle. "So, you're not quite as comfortable with this situation as you appeared to be, huh?"

"Oh, you mean, having to help a co-worker get undressed when he was a mess because of landing on the buffet table and then coming here to find him still half-undressed after he asked me to spend the night with him? Perhaps you mean how you made him feel as if he's an unwelcome part of my life even though he's not? Or maybe you mean just how awkward you made him feel in his own home by insinuating that there's still something going on between you and me when we both know there isn't?"

"So, you're not denying that what he said is true? You did want to stay when he asked you to?"

Amanda gaped at him incredulously. "Really, Joe? Is that all you got out of that?" She shook her head. "Look, it doesn't matter if I wanted to stay or if I didn't because, for one thing, like you said, it's not your business and for another, I wasn't lying when I said he wouldn't have been up for anything anyway."

Joe couldn't help laughing at her word choice. "I bet," he teased.

Amanda flushed and looked down at the floor. "Bad choice of words, bad, bad, bad," she scolded herself for not thinking before she spoke. She took a deep breath and met his eyes again. "But bad or not, it's true and what I said last night was also true, nothing really happened. I left here before it could."

"I still don't hear you denying that you wanted it to," he pointed out.

"Maybe I did and maybe I didn't, but I didn't _let_ anything happen, partially because if something did happen between Lee and me, I'd want it to be because we're both on the same page about it, not because he's just blurting things out because alcohol wiped out his inhibitions, but also partially because I just don't quite know how he really feels about me, regardless of what I feel for him. While I said some things in anger a moment ago that I probably shouldn't have said, I wasn't lying when I said his mood changes toward me, some days he acts like I'm his best friend in the world and other times, like I'm a nuisance."

"Amanda, whether you see it or not, the guy is crazy about you. That's probably why he acts the way he does. You called us both boys earlier and you don't know how close you were to the truth. He's acting just like a grade-school kid that doesn't know how to get the attention of the girl he likes, but is too afraid to just come right out and tell her that he likes her."

"No," she shook her head adamantly.

"Trust me, Amanda, I know guys. Think about it." He rose from his seat. "Listen, do you think your 'friend' would mind if I use his phone? I think I should call a cab after all and let you two sort this thing out between you without a third wheel involved."

"Joe, you don't have to do that."

"Yes, I do. I've overstayed my welcome already." He shot her a pointed look to indicate he wasn't just talking about their visit to Lee's apartment before going off to find the phone.

Amanda stared into the depths of her coffee cup as if it were a crystal ball and she were willing it to give her answers. Was Joe right? Was Lee just afraid to tell her how he felt? He certainly had no problems showing his feelings when another man was involved so why couldn't he just tell her what was on his mind?


	3. Call My Bluff

There was an audible silence in Amanda's station wagon as she drove from Lee's apartment back to the Soviet Embassy, neither Lee nor Amanda wanting to open their mouths for fear of opening a can of worms that should remained closed.

Finally, Amanda took a deep breath and suggested in an overly chipper tone to hide her nerves, "Gee, it's awfully quiet in here. How about some music?"

She switched on the radio and Lee immediately switched it off with a gruff, "No, this headache's still lingering."

"Well, maybe that will teach you not to drink so much next time," she snapped irritably.

"Yeah..." His mind drifted back to the prior night's events. He vividly remembered the sweet, longing kiss they'd shared at midnight, but the rest was a bit of a blur in his mind. He desperately wanted to know how much of it was real and how much of it was his own fevered dreams brought on by too much vodka. He glanced sideways at her in an attempt to gauge her mood and she didn't appear to be angry anymore, just annoyed. The question was, was she annoyed with him, at her ex? Both of them? Or was she still annoyed that he'd made an ass of himself at the party and an even bigger one by attempting to seduce her in his drunken state? "Hey...uh...that stuff that happened when your ex was there...I-" He broke off abruptly, too chicken to come right out and ask her about it.

"Yes?"

"Never mind. It's not important," he huffed and stared straight ahead through the windshield.

"No, I guess not," she sighed, wondering which part he meant, the fight itself or that he had once again resorted to caveman mentality after Joe had falsely insinuated that the two of them might reconcile.

 _There's your answer,_ he thought morosely. It doesn't matter to her; doesn't matter that she'd said she wanted to spend the night with him despite him being a jerk. "What I I mean is...the stuff I said to Joe about, you know...uh...what happened last night. Well, it...uh...I didn't really mean it, you know? Because it wasn't that big a deal."

"No big deal," she echoed his words blandly, fighting the urge to scream at him that it _was_ a big deal.

He shrugged to try to indicate that it didn't matter to him any more than it did to her. "Come on, Amanda, you and I both know what it was really all about, don't we? It was...uh...well, we started out playing a cover for Yuri's benefit, right?"

"Right," she agreed with a nod. "Because Yuri really believes we're a couple..."

"But we're not," they finished together and then Lee continued with, "So...uh...we both had a little too much to drink. I mean, I know you didn't drink as much as I did, but still, you'd had a few too."

"Right," she repeated, her heart sinking as she could already predict the next words to come out of his mouth.

"With that in mind, maybe..." His voice trailed off as he mentally kicked himself for being too much of a yellow-belly to really say what he was thinking, but really, it was for the best. Though he may protest for the sake of appearances, he really did like the working relationship he had with Amanda and the last thing he wanted to do was let it be damaged by inebriated inaptitude.

"Yes?" she pressed, hoping against hope that she was wrong.

"We-ell, I think...uh...last night, we should just chalk it up to taking our cover story too far, you know? Because we'd both been drinking. I mean, it's not like you really wanted to spend the night, right? You only said that to get me to leave you alone and go to sleep, am I right?"

Her shoulders slumped as his words registered, but she quickly right herself again, determined not to let her disappointment show. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and replied in what she hoped was a nonchalant tone, "Sure. After all, you did get a little more grabby than you would have under normal circumstances, but I blame the vodka." She didn't believe a word of what she was saying, but she knew if she pushed the issue, it would only make things worse. He was looking for an easy out and she decided it was best to let him have it. "And you...you didn't really want me to stay, did you? You just...well, you haven't been out in a while and you...you were just...lonely and I simply happened to be there. I'm sure if you'd taken one of your normal party girls as your date instead of me, it would've been the same thing, right?"

"Right," he readily agreed. _WRONG!_ an inner voice screamed in his head, but he couldn't make himself say it out loud.

"Sooo...I think that's a good idea you suggested. Just treat it as one more instance of playing our covers." She nodded firmly more to attempt to convince herself than to agree with him when what she really wanted to do was call him out on it. "Except..." she began in a an attempt to contradict what she'd already said and see if she could get him to open up a little more, Joe's words to her about Lee being crazy about her echoing through her mind.

"Except what?" _Please call me on all my bullshit,_ he pleaded silently.

"Well, there was that kiss at midnight. That was before the vodka," she pointed out.

"True," he concurred. "But everybody kisses someone at midnight, don't they? Besides, that was really part of the cover too since we were pretending to be a real couple." He winced at his own stupid defense mechanism of distancing himself kicking in when he didn't really want it to, but it was too late to take it back now.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Her hopes crushed, she thought back to how she'd told Joe last night how protective Lee was of her and continued in a lighter tone, "So, the fight with Borchov...that wasn't really about me either, was it? Not with the way you're always looking after me in the field just like that."

"Right, I was just protecting my partner. That's what partners do, right?"

"Oh, right, absolutely! So, your trip to Malta to rescue Joe..."

Lee frowned and shook his head. "Look, that was just more of the same thing. I heard through the grapevine that he was there and might be in trouble with all the unrest going on there, so I-"

"So, you hopped on a plane to help and flew halfway around the world just to rescue someone you'd never even met?"

"Just doing my job, Amanda," he explained. _Keep telling yourself that,_ the scolding side of his mind taunted. _You did it for her and you know it._ "Political unrest is sort of the Agency's forte, you know."

"Oh, I know, I know. I have no issue with that at all. I mean, Phillip and Jamie, they were thrilled to have their father home for the holidays and I was thrilled for them." _Just not so thrilled for myself,_ she mentally added. "But I can't help wondering why you told Joe not to tell me how he got home or more importantly, why you didn't tell me about it yourself?"

"Because it wasn't that big a deal; just another day on the job. I was there anyway because of what was going on. He just happened to be there too." He wasn't about to inform her that he'd specifically asked Billy for that assignment precisely because he knew Joe King was there.

"Hmm, that's quite the coincidence," she mused a bit disbelievingly. "But if it were really that simple and you really did think of it as just another day on the job, why hide it?"

"Coincidences like that do happen, you know? Like how we first met, for example; you just happened to be at the train station at the same time I was running for my life. As for hiding it, it's just like I told your ex," he shrugged. "We operate in secrecy." He tapped his chest. "Secret agent, remember? Emphasis on _secret_."

"Okay, yes, but you just said I'm your partner," she reminded him. "So, don't you think that's something a partner should be let in on, especially when it concerned me personally?"

"No, that's exactly why I didn't want you involved, because it did involve you personally," he informed her. "You'd be too emotionally invested in it. Then what if I hadn't been able to get to him in time to pull him out of the firefight? Then what, huh? You might have blamed me," he added defensively.

"Oh, come on. That's a cop-out and you know it. I know you too well now not to know that if it came right down to it, you'd have sacrificed yourself to bring him home. Besides that, I don't seem to recall you keeping me out of it when my mother was involved in a case. Remember that mix-up in the bookstore around Phillip's birthday? I was right there in the middle of that and it involved me personally and I trusted you then to keep my mother and my children safe even after I was attacked in my own home."

"Okay, yes, but a guy hiding in your closet with a knife is a whole lot different that riots in the streets, Amanda. You weren't there in Malta. You don't know how bad it is there right now."

"And since we've been working together, I've been kidnapped, drugged, lost my memory, nearly been blown up, mugged, almost run over, not to mention shot at more times than I can count. Even if you didn't want me along for my safety, don't you think I could've handled at least knowing what you were up to?"

"Listen, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it, okay? Happy now?" he replied testily. "I just didn't want you to know anything until I was sure I could get him safely home."

"Oh, no, I am _not_ happy now," she countered. "I am far from happy because what you said still makes no sense. If you didn't want me to know anything until you were sure you could get him out, then why did you specifically tell Joe not to say anything to me even _after_ you got him out?"

"Just because," he answered evasively.

"Because why?" she pushed.

"Look, you want the real truth, here it is. I went because I knew he was in trouble and I know how much your kids mean to you and how heartbroken they'd be if they lost their dad and how much that would hurt you to see them hurt. The reason I didn't tell you is because I also went for a purely selfish reason. I grew up without my parents, as you well know, and I didn't want to see your kids go through that, but I also didn't want you pitying me just because I had a rough childhood and I knew if you knew that I was the one who brought him home, that's exactly what would happen." He gestured to the partially sad, partially touched look on her face. "Just like that," he pointed out. "That's the face I didn't want to see."

"Lee, this isn't pity...at all. This is gratitude. You put your own life on the line to make sure my children wouldn't have to feel what you felt as a child. I guess I can never truly understand that part of you because even though my dad's gone, I was already married with kids of my own when he passed. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I'm happy that you cared enough to do that for my boys with no thought about what it might do to you." She reached over and lightly squeezed his hand.

"Yeah, you're welcome." He gave her a weak smile. "Now, can we please stop talking about this?"

She nodded. "I think we're going to have to anyway because there's your car there." She released his hand and pointed to the parking area where he'd left the Corvette the night before.

She pulled the wagon alongside his car and as he got out, she gave him a warm affectionate smile and said brightly, "Thank you again for what you did for Joe and my boys. And Happy New Year."

Despite all that had happened, he found her smile infectious and couldn't help returning it. "Happy New Year, Amanda."


End file.
